The Votes Are In!

Ok, not really all that much voting, but I did get some suggestions/swaying on either side for patterns. To be discussed a bit later.

Since my last post, we had another Mile Hi Knitters knit nite at Cathi's. The twist was this time, we got to meet a visiting blogger, Wendyof Bookish Girl Fame!


Wendy came into town to visit her best friend who lives in Louisville. In the picture, she is teaching Julie to knit, bringing her over to the dark side! Heehee!

It was a fun night and Cathi is always the consummate hostess. Red velvet cupcakes, yum! They looked so delicious, but I'd already tried the cheesecake and stopped there, but it was worth it. I shamelessly borrowed a pic from Stacey of Wendy, as my camera pics sucked and I don't think anyone would have appreciated my pics of them!

Since then, a little knitting has been happening. I was little bummed with the blue tank top as I'd done a good bit and then had to rip it all out. My gauge changed from 2 years ago (imagine that!) and I had to change the amount of stitches. I've started up again and am a little past where I started before, but this weekend has been a nice lazy one with a little knitting and a lot of lazing around.

Saturday I didn't do much, some knitting, a lot of What Not to Wear, I mean, really, who doesn't love this show? Ok, maybe someone, but I love it. And then out to lunch w/my sweetie M and one of the junior M's and then out for bra shopping. I did find the bra. Which it is sad when you go into the store looking for a strapless bra, which is not on sale, mind you and the lady says in one brand, Wonderbra, I don't think they go up that high (in my size). WTH? It's not like I'm a 42GG, we are talking 38C, geez, that made me feel great!

And what's up with the crazy purse selections out there? Usually I can find good purses at Foley's in Liz Claiborne or Nine West, but this weekend, nothing remotely resembled anything that I wanted and I am in need of a purse, so I would have bought something, although I'm sure M is relieved. It was a drag though.

Sunday was a nice relaxing day. We thought we would get up and go for a walk, but at 10:45 a.m., it was bright and sunny (read: beginning to get hot), so we nixed the walk, but instead, played in the pool. So much fun, especially since it was the first time we've used the pool in our condo complex. Last summer was too hectic. This summer has been a little dramatic, so it was nice to start off the day that way, before I had to run back home, take a shower, eat lunch and rush off to work at EB that evening. But it was done, not too bad of a day and came back home to relax a bit more.

Oh, and let me state for the record now, no more knitting with worsted weight cotton or bulky cotton, at least not for summer wear. Because no matter how tightly you knit it, it still grows and that is very annoying for me. From now on, dk-weight is the way to go.

As far as what to knit next, I think I will be starting Tivoli soon, not so sure if I will still do Soleil or not. We'll see. Right now, it's getting close to the end of the month and in August, I want to finish up summer knits and get ready for fall knitting and I don't want to be too ambitious. I did decide to make Tivoli out of some cream-colored Classic Elite Believe which is cotton and rayon. I think it will be very nice. Now just trying to decide how to make this top not roll around the edges. I've read about the knitted hem on the bottom, but wondering if ribbing would work around the edges of the sleeves and neck line. Since it's a top-down raglan, I'm wondering if I would have to go back and pick up stitches to make it lay down. Rolling edges are not my thing at all.

All for now, catch you later . . .I think it's time to make a blueberry crisp, recipe courtesy of Julie and perhaps sorbet. Yum! This time at home thing isn't all bad.

Update: One last thing, I got added to the Knitting Blogs ring. Woo-hoo!

A Beautiful Day

What a beautiful day today. I managed to get up this morning and take a walk. The area where I live is near some great trails and I decided I needed to do a little more. Right before I was laid off, I was getting into the weather and getting up early and taking a walk before going into work and just enjoying the outdoors. And trust me this is about as outdoorsy as I get. I love Colorado and it's a beautiful place to live, but I'm not into camping or any other (what I term) extreme stuff.

After I was laid off, I was understandably bummed and kind of fell out of my workout/exercise routine and no longer. It's time to enjoy myself, that's what summer is all about. I enjoy walks because it clears your head and it's completely alone time. Knitting sometimes gives me that clarity of thought, especially if I'm by myself, but if I'm watching t.v. with my honey, it's not the same. And I thought it best to get outdoors before our 3 digit temperatures, as of late, came beating down. What I love about any type of exercise are the endorphins afterward, you feel so good, you wonder why you don't do it all the time?

Nonetheless, I'm a bit undecided on the what I'm knitting next. It's so hot and I can only imagine August being worse, that I can't contemplate knitting with wool right now. Yesterday the temps hit 102 or 103. It sucks being inside a house with no air-conditioning and then the front blind decided to die, so we have to buy a new blind as well, but we have the oddest size windows, so finding a perfect fit for blinds is a challenge as we went back to Lowe's yesterday twice and once to Wal-Mart. But we did come home with a mobile evaporative cooler, which is like a mini-swamp cooler that is portable. It sits on a stand, but you can take it off the stand and put it on a tabletop or flat surface. So I'm hoping that will help relieve the heat.

Okay, off of the tangent, now back to what I'm knitting next. I'm not that excited about working this blue tank, but I will be happy once it's done and I know I can finish it fairly quickly, so just need to do it. Although I already made a mistake and I don't want to rip back (only about 6 rows of stockinette, even), but I will and suck it up. However, I thought about knitting this tank:






The only problem is that it's a bulky-weight cotton ribbon yarn. I have enough to do this top in either green that is pictured on in white. Originally when I bought this yarn, I thought of doing a 3/4 length V-neck sweater in stripes of green and white. Now I keep thinking it's hot and a bulky cotton sweater or even tank will be hot and cotton is heavy, so maybe not. And I may still go with my original thought of a sweater for early spring and easing into fall-type garment instead.

Or as Cynthia suggested, I might just start Soleil instead. Cynthia keeps telling me it's a quick knit and I might be swayed by it. Or even possibly making the Tivoli, like Michelle. So many decisions . . .

And still with the indecision is what pattern I will use to start my sockpal-twoza socks. I did decide on yarn:






I'm using some Lang Jawoll cotton sock yarn that is a pinky-green variegated colorway. I bought it some time ago and always thought it would be nice but never used it. Based on emails with my secret sock pal, I thought she might like these colors. Still not sure on the pattern, but since she likes most things, I may go with some sort of ribbed pattern, we shall see.

And in stash enhancement news, last week, I succumbed to more Cotton-Ease. At least this time, my local Hancock's had it on sale. 4 of the Vanilla and 4 of the Ice Blue. Only the Vanilla is pictured as the Ice Blue was safely tucked away in the stash.






So it's back to the job search. Talk to you all later . .

State of the State of Knitting!

I held off posting this long b/c I anticipated having another FO, but alas, that hasn't happened. I did bind off on Tempting, unforunately no pics to show. I started trying to weave in ends and got disgusted and turned it in to my LYS to have it done. Sad, but true.

I do still need to do one bit of finishing on my red-orange tank out of Katia Bonita and then it will be a true FO!

Oh, I do need to tell you tha the MHC Knitters met up again, this time at Lesley's, who is always a fabulous hostess. We had a great time with mango margs (Cyn, you were missed!), melted queso, 7-layer dip and green chili casserole and other yummies. Jenifer, Michaele, Shirley, Tami, Anne, Natalya, myself and Lesley were present. We had a great time and some titillating conversations that ran the gamut. Sadly, I took no pictures, which was a shame, as Lesley had the great idea of wine stitch holders to mark our glasses and the stitch holders were our gift to take home. Such a sweet and crafty touch, Lesley! Thanks again for having us over.

Just to show you that things are getting done, I cast off the sleeves for Donna. Now I just need to block it. But until I get a blocking board, or even get supplies to make one (thanks for the suggestions, Jon), I think I will just strip the bedding in the guest room and pin it out there. I would like to get this thing done soon. Here is Donna laying around being lazy:






To show progress on the Triada:






Yep, that's right, I ripped it all out. I was concerned that it would be too tight, as a fellow blogger, Michelle's did. And I wasn't feeling the love. I joined it and I was all excited, but shortly thereafter my excitement about making it died. And life's too short to work on projects you don't like. So I dropped out of the KAL and ripped it out on Friday night.

Something new I did start is a project from my Summer Knitting Lineup, which is a Sirdar Tango Slash Tank Top. I'd started the back of this project over two years ago, got confused on one part and just left it laying there for 2 years. Since I got some major projects almost out of the way, I feel that I can dedicate time to finishing this over the summer. Especially since it has a little shaping to it, but all stockinette. I'm just going to dive in and do it. Here's the back in case you were interested. I love this color blue.






That's it for today, but thought I'd pop in for a quick post.

Blueberry Waffle Socks FO

Pattern: Blueberry Waffle Socks
Yarn: Fortissima Colori 1000 100 gr. ball color 488
Started: sometime in March (before I started blogging) and completed on 07/11



I'm lovin' the FO mania happening here at WWK. I guess eventually all projects must come to an end, right? Anyhow, this is my first pair of socks using a pattern other than my generic stockinette socks pattern. It took me a little bit to do these, but the socks went to the wayside while working on other things. I wanted to get these socks done before I began work on socks for my Sock Pal, so these had to be finished.
I'm quite happy with these socks and so pleased with them. Because of the waffle stitch, these socks are quite stretchy and very comfortable. I love them. Now my M wants a pair too.

This past Friday, the MHC Knitters were meeting again, this time at Michaele's in Boulder. It was amazing that Stacey and I even made it as I printed out the directions, but only printed out half of them. So we made it to Boulder and then winged it, but we made it! A great time was had by all. Thanks to Michaele again for hosting it. We will miss you once you move to UT, but hopefully the time will fly so that you'll soon be back.

Since the meetup was to be a finishing party, I worked on a tank I'd "finished" (at least knitting it) about a month ago, but finally worked on weaving in the ends. I don't think I will need to do anything to stabilize the shoulders, so I will work on the neck finishing and should be reporting a FO for that one shortly.

For status on my summer knitting, here's progress on Donna. I'm on the sleeves, which are longer than I wanted, but at this point, I just want it done, so it doesn't matter.



They are soon to be done, but after I seam the parts together, I will still have to work on the neckline edging. I love this top, but I swear it will never end.

As far as Tempting is going, so far it's not. I hope to pick up the stitches and put them back on the needles tonight. Maybe by the end of the week, I can have that project done too. The nice thing about this one is it's done in the round, so I will need to weave in the ends, but that's all. Any suggestions on this one as far as ribbon color is concerned? I have no ideas of what color would look good with it. I just don't want to do a white or black as those are the expected ones or the only combos I can come up with and I'd like something a little better or different.


I've also joined yet another KAL. Well, not exactly. I've joined Stashbusters courtesy of Dani. I'm at a point right now, where I want to focus my upcoming projects for a bit on using stash yarn, rather than buying anything new. Or at least finish some projects out of stash, so that if I buy something new, something old has been going on its way out. Dig? So if you see the Stashbusters button on the KAL part of my page, that's what it's for. I'll announce my July Stashbusters project a little later on.

Since I'm thinking that I will have some things finished soon, I was thinking about going ahead and finishing up the blue tank top that only needs a second piece done and also starting Soleil from Knitty. But I doubt that I will get both finished in time and since the blue top has been hanging around for 2+ years, it would be nice if this one just got finished instead. And then I will focus on working on a sweater that I stopped working on over a year ago when I ran out of yarn. It's a bit hot to deal with wool, but my thinking is that if I at least start on the sleeves, that won't be so hot and I could get the sleeves done. Then I could muster up some courage to begin working on the fronts, etc.


And if you're still here, I also started on Triada from Interweave Knits a couple of weeks ago, but here's the first publicized pic.


I guess that's all for today.

OSW FO!

Many thanks to Stephanie for the pattern. Finally some pics of a finished item. This little number didn't take too long, but it wasn't a one night wonder for me, either.

Here's the front pic:



And the back pose:



The yarn I used was Austermann Microlana, 50% wool, 50% microfiber. I used a taupe color. I liked the yarn alot and it was quite soft, but the yardage was pretty skimpy (85 yds per), so I had to use 3 balls of yarn. I did not enjoy sewing in all the ends, but otherwise it was fine. I made the next size up from my measurements as I wanted to make sure it would fit my larger arms. I opted not to do the 2x2 ribbing around the body of the garment and used a seed stitch border instead. I'm very happy with this pattern and the project.

At first I wasn't sure that I liked it, until I wore it an office building and it kept me from freezing. I still had goosebumps on my arms, but I didn't feel like I couldn't stand it. In the summertime, I love to wear sleeveless tops but hate freezing in an office environment, even if I am wearing appropriate clothing,
Jon! So this is the prefect means to combat that problem. I see another one or two of them in my future.

The only negative is it is slightly difficult to get out of!

That's all the knitterly news that fit to print around here, so later.

p.s. There's other stuff but had no time for pics today. Hopefully over the weekend. And is it really sad that I was bored in my class today, so I wrote up my blog post?!?!?!?! Gotta have your priorities.

Summer Knitting continues

Hi all and a belated Happy 4th of July! I've been pretty busy as of late, although not with a real job, but with taking classes through an outplacement agency my former company placed me with. I'm very excited about taking the classes and actually figuring out what it is I really want to do and getting a great resume put together. So that's where I've been, as well as working some during the holiday madness of this past weekend at the part-time, which is nice for some small additional income.

In knitting news, there has been lots of knitting going on. I did finally finish the One Skein Wonder. I made the next size up b/c I was concerned about the sleeves not fitting my arms, which was good that I did and instead of picking up stitches and doing ribbing all around in 2x2, I did a seed stitch borde, which I like. I may try it on another one in ribbing just to see which one I actually like better. Sorry no pics today, but hopefully in the next post, which might be tomorrow as I have a day off from classes tomorrow.

I also cast on for the Triada, which is a KAL, I joined a few months ago and had never started. No progress on the Tempting after the try-on. I lost my needles for a few days and then when I found them, I was too busy finishing up the OSW and working on the Triada shawl/thingy. Thanks to everone for all the comments on the Tempting try-on shot. I will respond back to people soon, I promise. Many things have been happening right now and when I feel overwhelmed, I just duck back in my corner. I did decide to take several people's advice on the Tempting and make it a bit longer, perhaps another 1 to 1.5 inches in the "boobal" area, so that the girls don't try to escape, do the eyelet row and then maybe 1/2 an inch more. After the eyelet row, I may just try it on again and see how it works then. We'll see.

No progress on the sock unfortunately. It's still languishing. And I've started the sleeves for Donna and am past the ribbing. Since Michaele is hosting a knit night next Friday at her house as a finishing party, my goal is to finish the sleeves for Donna and finish the knitting on Tempting. So I have to stay focused on my knitting this week to get these two items finished, so that I could sew in some ends and sew up seams. I'll keep you posted.

Well I must go to get my day started. Happy knitting y'all!

What Do You Think?

Okay, this is Tempting thus far, at perhaps 17.5 inches in length, maybe 18. The pattern calls for it to be something like 21-22 inches, but I'm thinking I might not want it to be much longer. So I've posted a pic of it thus far, so let me know if you think I should keep knitting or what? It will need a ribbon, but for today I just wanted to see a)if it even fitted, and b) how it looked on, if it was long enough, etc.

That's all for now.

Where in the World Has Wanda Been?

It feels like it's been ages since I last blogged. You would think I would have all this free time to blog, but not really. I guess I have the time, but not the energy. I might spend time reading blogs in between looking for jobs while I'm at the computer, but that's through Bloglines, so not the same in creating a post.

The job search is still going, but not hearing anything back yet, which can kind of be a bit depressing, but I figure everyone doesn't move on "Wanda time", although I'm not really sure why! But I am taking some classes with the outplacement agency my former company partnered with today, so that's a positive thing and will make me feel a bit better. I was also working for 3 days full time at Eddie Bauer, my part-time job that I had, but in the Home store as it's going out of business. 8.5 hours days on my feet is not a good thing and boy was I tired, but it was good to get out of the house too.

Knitting-wise, my last post sounded as if I hadn't been knitting at all, which wasn't entirely true, but I guess if you don't post for 5 days, you have a little more time to actually get some knitting done. I did go to a knitting group on Saturday, in the a.m., didn't make it over to Miss Cynthia's as I had to work at the aforementioned Eddie Bauer that evening. I'm making great progress on the sock, almost to the toe decreases, so I'm happy to have that almost done, so I can get started on my sock pal socks. I'll have to post some pics, hopefully tomorrow, of which yarn to use and possibly sock patterns or just go with a stockinette sock with self-patterning yarn, hmm.

I do actually have some knitting pics today, so here's the sock:

I have to say for never doing any sort of pattern for a sock, other than just letting the self-patterning yarn do its thing, this was a fun pattern to do and I really love the yarn I'm working with too. It has subtle variegations of the brown yarn but it's working up wonderfully.

Me and Donna, which I absolutely *lurve* is moving right along. I have finished the front and am now working on both sleeves at the same time. I also decided to make the sleeves shorter, from 11.5 inches to 6.25. Quite a difference. One of my friends at Strawberry Tree (my LYS) helped me by figuring out the increases and changing my number of cast on stitched to make the pattern work. I'm very excited to be somewhere near finishing this thing in the next few weeks. Here's the front, in case you wanted to see it:







Tempting, oh how I don't love thee anymore. I did pick it up last night and knit a few rounds, but it looks like I've got at least 5 more to go. I will probably just sit down a couple of nights in a row with a movie and go to work on this thing. Although while we were watching some tv last night, I was getting into a rhythm, but this thing takes forever to grow. I swear it just eats yarn. Even if I watch say two movies for 2 hours each, I might get two inches total out of this thing. I have to just do nothing for the better part of a day to get 3-4 inches and by then my hands are aching, but I do want this thing to be through. The good thing about knitting in the round is that there aren't a ton of ends with pieces and nothing to seam up. Just finish attaching the sleeves to the piece and weave in the ends from the yarn. It is looking better:






It was good to get out with friends this weekend, that helped fuel my knitting desire again. I also completed my knitting inventory yesterday. While digging through the 3rd and final bin, I found some yarn that I'd been gifted with before that I picked up greedily at the time, but now realize I have no real use for this yarn and I don't plan on ever doing that much baby knitting with the same yarn, over and over again, so I've cleared it out of my stash. As well as more of the plastic Katia Sherry I have that I don't know what possessed me to ever buy. I think whenever one of the local yarn groups does a yarn swap or something I will take that yarn over and see who wants it. It's not bad stuff, I just don't want it. Especially as I looked over at 90% of my stash is stuff that I really love. There's other stuff, such as scraps, which are just there, but they do take up a little space and some baby yarns for all those folks that keep reproducing, so it's okay stuff there, but I'm not just all "up" in love with that.

Oh and for you blogger/blogspot users, did you notice that the upload image button is actually working and you don't have to do all the runaround stuff to get your pics in a post? Very nice, I'm just trying it out today for the first time. You do have to be careful when you upload it as it puts the picture at the top of the post, but you can cut and paste it to the spot where you want it. You gotta love the people that do this stuff, Blogger, Google, Hello and Picasa, it's pretty sweet for free. And if you people didn't know it, I love free!

A Little Clarification

Regarding Estes, it does look like my purchases were restrained and they were for me. However for my Secret Pal, I bought a few more items, I just can't post them on the blog as of yet.

Knitting-wise, I've been knitting but not that much. I worked on Donna last Friday and that's been about it for that project. I did pick up my blueberry waffle socks that had been lingering around for a bit. I got to a point where I needed to do all the heel stuff (working the heel flap, turning the heel and picking up stitches) that is usually not conducive to doing while knitting with friends, so I put it down and then kind of forgot about it for awhile.

Since I've been home (in my hot house with no A/C), I haven't felt like pulling out Donna and think I had some residual guilt about that sock, so I pulled it out and began working on the heel. I've finished all the stuff for the heel and actually done all of the decreases and am now just working on the foot. That's what I love about socks, their portability. I've been forced, er, watching the finals with the bf and have gotten to work on the socks quite a bit. Although Donna is lingering, I will probably pick her up today.

Tempting is not tempting me at all and for now, it's just sitting there. I will finish it because I've put this much work into it, but I'm not feeling the love.

Oh and regarding the Cotton-Ease hoarding behavior as of late, a la Cathi and Monica and Lynette, the sugarplum Cotton Ease was purchased last week at Hancock Fabrics, which mine was not even on sale. But then the two bags of Popsical Blue were bought at Tuesday Morning on Monday evening. (Sorry Michelle, I couldn't make it to Tuesday Morning on Monday morning, hehe!) And Stacey went hogwild over CE last weekend and I picked up some Cherry Red that she didn't want. The picture showed one bag, but I, in fact, have two bags of it too.

Following the lead of Julie, I've begun cataloguing my stash. It's actually something I've done a few times, but I always stall out on the data entry side. But seeing as how I have a little free time right now (ahem!), I figure I've got time to get my stash catalogued and entered in Excel as well as my books.

Cynthia told me that I have a large stash, which I don't think it's that bad. I mean, I only have 3 large tubs of the clear variety. However, as she mentioned, it doesn't sound bad until you start looking at what's all in them. And as I was cataloguing the 1st bin (please note: I haven't even gotten to the other two), that yeah, I have a butt-load of yarn. But I do love my stash.

And to make matters worse, my LYS was having a sale yesterday and I went to it. I actually only wanted to purchase an additional 5-6 balls of Mission Falls 1824 Wool in a mustard gold colorway. I'd purchased this yarn to make a lacy rib sweater from one of the Missions Falls books a few years ago and have enough yarn for me, but as I started swatching for it, I wasn't that enthused by this sweater. M keeps saying how he loves this color and I could always make one for him. Since I've promised him that I would make a sweater for him by this Christmas, I thought I'd get more of this color. But sadly they were out of the colorway, so I needed to find something else for him. I did find a nice merino wool in a mossy green color. I was attempting to get home and get it put away before he got there, but in typical fashion, that didn't happen. So, when he got home, I just showed it to him and he loved the color, which was good. Now I just need to find a pattern.

I'll try to have pics in the next post. I was just too lazy to bother today.

oops, I forgot to mention, while at my LYS, I ran into Cynthia and helped her shop for yarn, as well as seeing AmyB and her little sweetheart Edwin, who was not interested in meeting any of Mommy's friends! Stacey came by for moral support, but it didn't stop Cynthia's foray into the Dark side of Knittery (heh-heh!). We also saw Jon who was helping push the crack, er, yarn. He was also sporting the clean-shaven look and it looked good on you Jon.